Chapter 9-276: Pure Desires (1/2)
His scarred lips pursed slightly. -But not for a Hellpact.-
“I’d rather assumed you don’t want a Pure Hellpact, oddly enough.”
The half a smile ghosted across and was gone. -I would love a Pure Heavenpact...-
“The only way to do that would be with a Good soul, of course. As I really don’t think you want to be Consuming a Good person, you’d have to do the logical workaround.”
He nodded slowly. -Someone whose soul had been Consumed by a Hungry Kiss or Poison Heart Warlock.-
“Correct. Since you didn’t kill them, you’d have the option of letting them go free, keeping them around, or actually dragging them Down with you. Keeping them around and away from the Shroud is actually a mercy, as long as they agree, and if they want to help out, well, you are the tool to do so.”
-It would be nice if I could just swap out my Hellpact for a Fire Pact,- he /said wistfully. -But that is not possible.-
“You shouldn’t have any problem with them being able to specialize in a Storm, Water, City, Stone, or Land Pact, however.”
-Why doesn’t Shvaughn have something like this?- he /asked, somewhat amused.
“It would require willing agreement, separate thought, and independent initiative to develop, none of which are possible. She assimilates aspects of those she Consumes into the gestalt persona she has developed after overcoming their resistance. After a period of time, she’s not carrying around any souls, there’s just people she used to be, and can be again if she needs to be.”
-Mmm. The power of the Hungry Kiss,- he /agreed. Unless the soul was warded by a contradicting Pact, of course. Thus, the only independent souls inside Shvaughn would be Pactbound, but she would simply erode them away by taking their memories and skills until there would be nothing left of them to pull that off.
Willing, independent, and still able to grow. None were likely for Shvaughn. Coercion was not the way to do this. How could you become a Pure vessel of belief for a Pact if you were coerced into it? That aspect was the most important here.
“Truly abusing the power of a Heaven-and-Hellbound Warlock. And have you decided how to abuse your Amazons?”
-No?- he /replied, giving me a look again.
“Combat specialists. Have them basically retrain everything, but this time, instead of reinforcing their Amazon side, have it reinforce THEM. So they get stronger, not their Amazon version. After all, you won’t get the benefits, and neither will they. So, all their Stat buffs need to go to them, and Stat Masteries and whatever, too.
“That way, they can actually Level up their souls, suck their Karma away from the Amazon side of things, and actually improve themselves, not their Pact.”
He nodded slowly. -And have them each focus on a specific martial discipline, and set of skills?-
“Amazons come with pre-set Skills, and they have to choose a few extra. Since they are borrowing Amazon brains to learn stuff, keep it for themselves. They may not be as good as an Amazon, but at least it’ll be theirs.”
-Is there a simple way to help them start this process?-
“Swap all their Amazon Pacts around. It will get rid of the defaults they’ve already set in place, and let them restart, such as it is.”
He shook his head and ghost-smiled again. -And I suppose you have recommendations for things they should learn?-
“All Amazon Pacts are roughly the same, with only the most minor deviations by goddess, usually in the mandatory Skills. I believe the defaults for Amazons of Rue is Intimidate, Bluff/Lie, Ride, and Athletics. They can expand beyond that, but can’t take anything that isn’t a Class Skill for an Amazon, meaning no high-tech stuff, unless their Class grants it to them. So their goal is to get a mental Stat to 14, enter the Helix paradigm, and Level themselves up alongside it, leaving their Amazon Pact to rot. After all, you’ve got the physical side taken care of. They just need to keep their own Levels, independent of being an Amazon.”
-That is a fine goal. Is it worth their time?-
“Rue won’t be able to make a devil out of them if they are truly repentant, even if she can mine their Sin. There’s planar and spiritual metaphysics involved, but it basically comes down to them wanting to do the right thing, as opposed to whatever they wanted before.” I could only shrug. “They’ve got a Heaven Pact right there. If they want to judge how they’re doing, there’s a meter. And, you know, all the Dark Amazon Pacts start with Eryl, which means they changed goddesses once. There’s no reason they can’t change goddesses again, right?”
-Indeed. I will speak to them about it, and see what they have to say. I suppose it is lucky I mostly burned out the Spontaneous Matrix first...-
“Clerical offensive spells aren’t the best, unless you are talking undead, although you can dish out Buffs if you use Healing Wrath,” I noted.
-It will be amusing to have them practice Casting by giving spells away through Wrath. I will have to make up some Wands for them to charge up for their practice.-
“It is a convenient way to use up travel time. It might be interesting to see if they have enough rep counts already to take a Reserve. Both of them dumping a 3d6 Fire Reserve into your Wrath could be a thing.”
He looked a bit stunned. -Is that even possible?-
“As long as you’ve got at least two Spell Slots, and even the dregs of a Casting Matrix, sure.”
He sighed silently. -So abusable,- he finally /muttered.
A Purified 11d6 Wrath, automatically maxed for 66 points, with +6d6 of Fire Reserve on the top, plus Banefire, Blessed, Vivus...